The invention relates to a surgical clip applier.
Surgical clip appliers are used to apply surgical clips or fasteners to tissues and other areas of a surgical site during the course of various surgical procedures. Clip appliers include automatic and manual appliers, and the present invention is directed toward manual appliers.
Known clip appliers include jaws which are used to hold a clip and a mechanism which is used to close the jaws so that the clip can be closed upon the desired location. These devices must be precise, reliable and user friendly for the surgeon. Producing these qualities, however, frequently requires the applier to be complicated and expensive, which is not conducive to a single-use item. In addition, the complex structures incorporated into such apparatus are problematic during cleaning and sterilization.
Another issue with known clip appliers is over-opening of the jaws. This is problematic because if jaws open too far, a clip held in the jaws can inadvertently be dropped, potentially within the surgical site with obvious complications resulting therefrom.
The focus of the present invention is to overcome the above-identified disadvantages.